The original post has already been deleted from Reddit (though the comments still stand). But I was able to snag a screenshot from Twitter’s @Redditships and I present it to you now, with some highlights added by me:

Most of those responding on Twitter are going with jokes and memes and variations of “it me!” And I have to admit that the first thing I did was to make my own meme on the state of this poor woman’s relationship, swapping out the face of Jesus in an old meme for the face of Slavoj Žižek, the hot-dog-loving Marxist philosopher who for some reason just had a three-hour debate on Marxism with Jordan Peterson, who apparently has spent less time actually studying Marxism than he did debating it with the Ziz.

But all joking aside, I feel bad for the gal. Her meme-obsessed boyfriend is being a jerk towards her and should definitely spend less time pasting Žižek’s face into memes — though I would like to add that when a blogger does the same thing to make a point it’s perfectly fine, and it doesn’t mean he’s neglecting his cats.

The fact that this guy is ostensibly a lefty doesn’t absolve him. He’s really no different than the stereotypical aging jock who demands his wife or girlfriend shut up and leave him alone while he obsessively watches football, or whatever. I mean, it’s only been a few weeks since half the internet — justifiably — jumped on reactionary pundit Denise “D.C.” McAllister for trying to convince the women of America to become drink-servers for their sports-loving hubbies.

If you’re spending time with a person, spend your time with that person. It’s more than fine to have some time to yourself, even a lot of time, but don’t shut your partner out and stop asking them questions about their life. Come on dude, how funny are your Zizek memes anyway?

I mean, I just went through a whole bunch of Zizek memes and honestly most of them were terrible, not much better than the cringy Jordan Peterson memeshis fans put together.

These were ok, though.

And, seriously, if you haven’t seen the video of him marching down the street with a half-eaten hot dog in each hand, munching furiously, you need to.

Ayupyupyup… been exactly a year since the van attack here in Toronto (and we are mourning our first round exit in the hockey playoffs). The local paper had a profile on those who were injured but survived and the injuries that they’ve had to recover from. We often overlook them and focus on the body count, but the survivors remain forever changed as well.

As for Alberta, well… it is the province that gave us the Social Credit Party of James Keegstra (the one that the hate speech ruling is named after). But this ongoing trend of right-wing governments taking over the provinces (PEI just went for a minority Tory government last night), it doesn’t bode well for anybody who has a stake in resolving climate change or fostering a tolerant society. If the Tories win the federal election later this year, then basically the last bastion of decency is gone (as Merkel is stepping down).

And if that happens, I’m going to point fingers in a lotta directions: Trudeau for not fighting these guys harder (and having milquetoast policies that leave him open to questions about his accomplishments), the media for gormlessly promoting the Lavalin nothingburger and Jody Wilson-Raybould for kneecapping her own government in a way calculated to do it maximum damage.

Because I can’t grab a deplorable by the lapels and shout empathy for others into them. There’s no magic words that somehow triggers the feeling human brain parts that recognizes human suffering from a person with darker skin than them, be they Syrian, Haitian or aboriginal. There’s no bargaining human decency, so what’s to be done if half the population shrugs and doesn’t vote, and the rest elect alt-right sympathizers with a 37-38% plurality?

*sigh* I don’t like feeling powerless like this. That’s probably why I’ve been doing my Let’s Play, which is almost done.

It’s worse than that. Ford has started the privatization of health care in Ontario.

My parents are both UK citizens. I think I heard at some point that that gives me the right to claim a UK citizenship myself, though I was born on Canadian soil. And for the moment the UK is still part of the EU. So could I claim that citizenship and then move anywhere inside the Shengen area, at least as long as I did it before any form of Brexit took effect? And if so, where would be best? I’m beginning to think I may need an exit strategy in case Canada goes to hell in a handcart. If there are too many cuts to social assistance and the white-collar jobs don’t magically come back I won’t be able to survive here.

I assume the UK is no better — between the Tories and UKIP and the worsening housing and healthcare situation there, I’d just be jumping out of the frying pan and into another frying pan. The best bet, I suppose, would be one of the Nordic countries, though I hear the climate in these is even worse than it is here. Problem then being the language barrier. Unlike the UK none of the rest of European countries are English-speaking …

I remain amazed at how Ford is just blatantly bribing the voters with booze. I thought buying votes with liquor went out of style with the open ballot.

I also remain confused at Wilson-Raybould. One of the pundits at the CBC said he’d seen this play before, of someone wanting to get forward in the party by hitting at the leader — but the timing is just really, really weird for that. When you’re trying to replace the leader, you don’t do it eight months from an election. Especially not when he’s the vote-getter. You wait for him to win the next election, and then you diminish him. Otherwise, you’re just risking that your party lose the election, and what does it matter if you take it over then?

It’s just strange. (As for the Lavalin scandal… Well, yes, paying bribes is bad. On the other hand: They paid bribes? In Libya??? Say it ain’t so… I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.)

I’m beginning to think I may need an exit strategy in case Canada goes to hell in a handcart.

I am inclined to agree with you. I just feel like, if we all leave, who’s left to challenge this? I also feel like, frankly, there’s nowhere that wouldfeel saf(er). Literally everywhere to move to has some serious downsides to go with the positives.

Is it awful that my husband and I actually spend a lot of serious conversations working out where we could safely go if shit got real bad real fast?

I think I heard at some point that that gives me the right to claim a UK citizenship myself, though I was born on Canadian soil.

Yes, it does. You can also keep your Canadian citizenship (I did), which might not seem much of a great deal now, but it’s handy if you want to travel. Lots of neat and interesting places on the planet that aren’t over fond of the UK but are fine with Canadians.

Even after Brexit it’s quite likely as a UK citizen you could settle in the Republic of Ireland as of right. It’s a reciprocal deal pre – dating either UK or Irish membership of the EU. I think it was part of the original deal under which the Republic was established.

Unlike the UK none of the rest of European countries are English-speaking …

I’m sure the Irish wouldn’t be upset to hear that!

Things might get tricky though depending on how Brexit goes. You’d need to have lived in Ireland for 5 years to get citizenship, but if the UK crash out and hard borders go up, things might be problematic for British citizens not born in Northern Ireland. A Canadian getting British citizenship then moving straight to Ireland might raise some extra questions.

@Rabid Rabbit:
And with respect to bribing voters with booze, Ford isn’t even necessarily doing that competently. Folks were pointing out on the radio, I think yesterday morning, that while opening things up to liquor from other provinces is nice, that requires that the other provinces play along, too. And some of them pretty explicitly won’t.

UGH. Buck a beer isn’t even a THING any more, because no one can make it that cheappppp….!!! Spend the BILLION on HEALTHCARE for the GTA over the next 10 years! You cut it from the budget just so you could spend it on Big Beer, right???

I am inclined to agree with you. I just feel like, if we all leave, who’s left to challenge this?

I did challenge this, last June. In doing so, I accomplished jack shit. And since Ford has a majority, he will just do whatever the fuck he wants to for four fucking years and there’s nothing anyone else can do about it until sometime in 2022. By which time it’s a good bet Ford will have killed me if I’ve stayed put.

I also feel like, frankly, there’s nowhere that would feel saf(er). Literally everywhere to move to has some serious downsides to go with the positives.

If that’s the case, then we’re all fucked, and only wealthy white cishet male abled Protestants can expect to ride the next decade or two out … unless the nuclear button gets pushed, in which case no-one can. :/

@Onager:

@Surplus

Unlike the UK none of the rest of European countries are English-speaking …

I did challenge this, last June. In doing so, I accomplished jack shit.

Oh my God, I am so sorry; I feel like you took my words as meaning YOU, personally (at risk to your own safety) should speak out. I don’t feel that way! If I hurt you I apologise. I’m not at all meaning to say that having an escape-plan is a cop-out; I actually think it’s very sensible.

To be honest, I was just trying not to sound all me-me-me, because of course lots of communities besides my own are at risk. Being any kind of (visible or not) minority is terrifying in this political climate.

If it helps, what I meant was that I personally feel scared and hopeless. I feel like there is literally nowhere for my family to live if Canada goes all the way to the bad. I look at it not in terms of “where would I be allowed to work, where would my daughter be allowed to go to school, where am I unlikely to be physically attacked” (basing this on my time in Europe). I DO genuinely worry that, as you said,

we’re all fucked, and only wealthy white cishet male abled Protestants can expect to ride the next decade or two out

I’m not “staying to challenge” because I’m brave and noble, I know I’m not. And I’m so sorry if it sounded like I expect you or anyone to put aside personal safety to do brave, noble, foolish acts of defiance. It’s more like, for me as for so many others (and I know you are probably in this category too) there’s not many places safe to go. I’m here anyways…while I’m here, if I can, in ways that I can, I want to speak out/vote/make noise; I feel like, what else is there to do?

I wanted to share a personal story. When I was in my late teens/early 20s I was attacked (not in Canada btw) by a woman who pulled my hijab off on the street and shouted abuse at me. My parents were terrified when I told them. They said I should stop wearing it till things calmed down. My response — probably dangerous, certainly stupid, and likely not effective — was to wear hijab MORE defiantly; to refuse to compromise. Do I think it changed anything? Probably not. And yet — dangerous, stupid, ineffective as it was — I felt better for doing it. That’s what’s going on for me now, when I say I want to challenge hate. I dont AT ALL think ill of anyone who does differently. It’s just what works for me.

Again, if my words read like I meant to challenge or provoke you, I’m very sorry. I dont know what happened to you last June, but I hope you take care of yourself and that you feel and are safe in your life.

I think we chatted about this years ago; but there’s something called The Free Travel Area.

That dates back to 1922 and has nothing to do with the EU*.

It allows citizens of the UK and Ireland to travel freely between the two countries without passports.

It also allows citizens of both countries to settle and work in either; and gives entitlement to things like access to free healthcare, education, welfare benefits etc; and certain voting rights.

Having said that; if we do Brexit then I’ll be taking up my right to an Irish passport anyway. It’s been interesting applying. My granddad didn’t have an official birth certificate; the family were too poor to afford one. But it transpires that’s really common. And oftentimes people wouldn’t get one anyway because, at that time, they were issued by the hated Brits. So the Irish nationality service are being pretty flexible about accepting anecdotal evidence in lieu; and luckily the family are still in the same cottage as they were back then.

[* The ECHR has nothing to do with the EU either; which is one of my bugbears when people conflate the two]

@Bookworm: I wasn’t offended, just genuinely puzzled that anyone thought there was anything I could do now. I did vote, and I encouraged others to vote against the Tories, but fat lot of good it did.

At this point, anywhere but here it feels like speaking out against the right wing or in favor of left-ish policies is shouting into a hurricane for all the good it does. And now that hurricane has made landfall right next to my healthcare, with a cone of likely projected paths that cuts a broad swath right through things like disability benefits and rent controls, with education already lying in ruins.

You don’t survive a hurricane by yelling at it. You survive a hurricane by getting the fuck out of its way. So here I am thinking maybe it’s time to figure out how and then get the fuck out of this one’s way …

I am glad you are safe. I hope that this means that the bad person in question gets put far away from you.

@MissEB47 (Resident Rainbow Lorikeet and Beak Typist)
I should but I can’t just yet. I still got a grandmother to look after when others cannot. But if this keep escalating I’ll go for broke and find somewhere else. Sure I still got other things with family that are issues like my gender, but none of them are “will literally bite me” tier.

@FGETC
Thank you for the condolences and reassuring me that my aunt is the one in the wrong.

EDIT: Apparently no one defends my Hermit Aunt from my Mean Aunt’s bullshit. Maybe I should be the one to defend her. At least a bit more than what I normally do.

The only reason there was a referendum in the first place was because the government believed it will get an overwhelming “remain” vote. When the peasants dared to disagree, and actually voted to leave, the government moved to plan B, to wit, to stall and delay Brexit until it will become politically possible to have another referendum, which will get the “correct”, remain, result. Then, of course, there will never, ever, be another referendum. One man, one vote, one time, as in the third world.

This is hardly new; this is the way the EU dealt with every referendum that went the “wrong” way in other countries, too. It is ignored or re-voted until “remain” wins, and then the referenda, of course, stop forever. The EU leaders, like the British leaders (they come from the same class), have a deep distrust of democracy, or “populism” as they call it whenever the hoi polloi vote the wrong way.

What they want, in effect, is a “democracy” in the same style as the late Roman republiic. Elections are conducted with pomp and circumstances, and there is a lot of talk about the ancient freedoms of the people, but in reality all power and decision making belongs to the same tiny, unelected rolling class of bureaucracts.

1. ‘We want control of our borders
with the EU.’
(We always had it, but that’s
beside the point I’m making.)

2. The Good Friday Agreement that
more or less ended the Troubles
requires an open border on the
island of Ireland, as does the
UK / Ireland common travel area,
which pre – dates EU
membership of both countries.

3. That border will be an
‘uncontrolled’ border between
the UK and EU.

4. Whoops !

5. See point 1.

Solutions on a postcard to Mrs T May please, c/o House of Commons, Westminster, London, UK. (Sarcasm.)

Kevin – no disagreement about the facts, but I can wish to suggest to you Ms. May deliberately made the worst possible Brexit deal, for the *purpose* of it being rejected.

The idea is to, first, persuade the populace Brexit is an impossible fantasy, and therefore they should have voted remain. Second, by rejecting a no-deal Brexit as an option, to deliberately leave the EU work only one negotiation card: another referedum.

Soon, she or her successor will offer the EU a
second referendum, in theory because they are “forced” to, but in reality because such a referendum, and cancelling Brexit, is what she (and 99% of the rest of the ruling class, whether Tory or Labor) want.

It seems to me like a new referendum would result in a win for remain. Now that it’s become clear what economic consequences of a no deal Brexit would be, people seem to be a little less blase about the whole thing.

The main issue with the referendum was that the question seems to have been interpreted as: “Are you happy with the status quo, or would you prefer something else?”

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising people chose the something else option. The problem then of course being there there are at least half a dozen ‘something elses’; all mutually incompatible.

I’m somewhat disappointed it became a bit of a ‘Lexit’; and with the stance of Corbyn and the bigger unions; but in fairness; lefty anti EU sentiment has always been there, and Greece just exacerbated that.

Could the “memes are ideology” part possibly mean that they have been used to get shit past the radar through plausible deniability but insinuating in people’s mind like a brainworm, while dismissing it as something not serious and jokeful, while containing fucking happy merchants et al? 🙂

Ooglyboggles-You seem to be on top things and you have a plan in place. A good idea is to always have a bag of clothes and toiletries packed for emergencies so if you need to leave in a hurry, you can just grab it and go. Stay safe and keep a watchful eye on your aunt. *hugs*

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